From The End of Your Leash

A frothy, brilliant, genre-bending mongrel. There are dreamy pop songs sung by folks not ready to turn their backs on the visceral joys of gutter punk. There’s a shameless embrace of groovy SoCal country rock. There are sharp, soulful Stax-style horn blasts thrown to the dark, moist corners of the studio where the irrepressibly cool indie rock kids hang out with their Morphine records. There are sparse, harrowing, timeless recordings recast from the fields and hollers and dropped, half a century later, into the back of a rock band's shitty van and the shitty dressing rooms of a million shitty clubs.

It is brimming with south of the hips R&B swagger layered over primeval murder ballad improbably and impressively thrown next to orchestral/discordant droning prog-roots. There is a love of the Brill Building, as well as Music Row, CBGB's and the gas station outside Memphis where the van broke down. All of it tied together with Bobby's tender, profane, howling, heartfelt lyricism that we'll stack against anyone's.

It is a beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, ambitious, bold, dynamic, hypnotic, lovesick and lovelorn lyrical knockout of a record. Joining him in the Starvation League this time around are guests like Andrew Bird,
Paul Burch, Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk,
Firewater), Will Oldham (Palace Bros.), Paul Niehaus (Calexico, Lambchop), and Deanna Varagona (Lambchop). It also contains the best songs EVER about being in a touring band ("Let's Rock and Roll") and about Nashville ("Music City"). Only Bobby could write THE anti-love song ("Valentine") that'll have you singing along without shame, it's that catchy---huge fuzzy guitar solo, punchy horn section. It's one of the best songs EVER. There, we said it.

Taken as a whole, From the End of Your Leash plays like an album of love songs to music itself; we never know where it will lead us, and Bobby and the crew cannot be bothered to question where the muse will drag them next. The trip won't ever be dull, we can promise you that.

This album finds him cutting a more ambitious piece from the proverbial apple pie, with jaw-dropping results... the stylistic paella he mixes up is even more mind-blowing. While this may not be the prettiest album you'll hear this year, it is surely one of the most brilliant.

— Paste

A near-genius mix of classic country, indie rock and new wave pop.

— Nashville Rage

It's as melancholy as anything Gram Parsons or The Stones ever attempted in the early '70's, as orchestrally-ambitious as Bowie's most experimental work, and as groovin' as any CCR hit.

— Charleston City Paper

These are songs that punch you in the mouth and dare you to fight back.

— The Boston Phoenix

He's forged a musical style that blends smoking country rock and dreamy '80s Britpop in way that must leave Ryan Adams stricken with envy. Those who latch on to From the End... will likely find themselves returning to it for years.

— Performing Songwriter

It is a thoughtful, funny, mournful, bittersweet CD full of haunting lyrics played with an almost psychedelic sentimentality...and the entire album sounds like a fusion of Wilco, Gram Parsons and some shrugging acceptance of the inevitable.

— Exclaim

Traditional country, prototype rock 'n' roll or Americana... plus R&B, punk and even some pop elements converge into a sound that is overpowering, often extremely loud, yet also quite compelling and alluring. In short, Bare's compositions and the groups performances embody both the grand and the anarchic aspects of American vernacular music.